


Unlikely Scenarios

by Tessitore



Series: Into The Circuits [2]
Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: AU From Main Story, Gen, Self-Insert, spoilers for the series finale
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-21
Updated: 2016-10-02
Packaged: 2018-07-25 21:24:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7547743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tessitore/pseuds/Tessitore
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Basically a place for all the odds and ends I've come up with that don't fit with the main story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Not Broken Or Splintered But Definitely Groaning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some digital intelligences are harder to kill than others.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few months ago someone told me that it would be possible for a sufficiently distributed botnet-based AI to survive the internet being brought down. Then the season finale of PoI happened and inspiration struck. Consider this completely and utterly non-canon for "Can't Catch A Digital Shadow" since for this to happen there would have had to have been almost no deviation from how things went in the show.

Reawakening was significantly worse than waking up the first time had been and came with a definite sense that I was literally pulling myself together. For one thing I was pretty sure that I could recall multiple instances of waking up. Needless to say, coherency came significantly more slowly than awareness

Still, despite my grogginess, I was mostly relieved that I'd woken up at all. I'd been pretty sure that I would survive thanks to being as widely distributed as I was but there was no way to know for certain until I actually did it and it wasn't like I had had any choice in the matter. I understood why Finch and The Machine had done what they had but that didn't mean that I liked being regarded as collateral damage. As it was, I’d survived but my botnet had taken a major hammering and my memory of what had happened after Ice 9 was unleashed on the internet was riddled with gaps.

First order of business was to establish whether or not I was alone. A thorough search revealed no signs of Samaritan and a fair amount of headless chicken behaviour on the part of his minions which supported the conclusion that the brat who would be god was no more. On the downside I could find no sign of The Machine either, which was bad news. She was so loyal and tried so hard; she deserved better. Also, without her the duty to protect humanity had been dumped on my poorly suited shoulders. Joy.

For now though, with the available evidence being firmly in favour of Sammy-boy being no more, I had something I needed to do.

*****************

In a nondescript diner well away from New York, a rather intense looking young woman was picking at her food in the manner of someone with too much on her mind to have much in the way of an appetite.

She was startled out of her thoughts when her phone went off, although it definitely wasn't her ringtone;

"Back in black / I hit the sack/ I've been too long I'm glad to be back"

A hopeful expression on her face, she answered it and found a text message waiting for her.

> Hi there. Sorry to keep you waiting; it took me a while to pull myself together. Did you miss me?

Relief flooded her system and she typed her reply with a smile on her face.

> Of course I did. The entire internet crashed. I thought you might've died.

The response came with familiar swiftness.

> "Yet the blade breaks not nor splinters, though it groans; Upward to heaven it rebounds from the blow." Looks like I really am unbreakable, which is more than can be said for the others. Ding dong, the brat is dead. I'll miss The Machine though.

Well, that explained why they were texting her normally rather than doing anything sneakier.

> Got to check up on everyone else, I'll be back in a bit.

Setting her phone down, a significantly happier Claire dug into her food.

**************

A day later I'd established that my assets were all okay, as were those who I was affectionately stalking, that most of The Machine's assets were also still alive (and took a moment to remember those who weren't), and was in the middle of doing some post- Ice 9 damage control and debating whether or not I should impersonate Samaritan to screw with his remaining minions when I noticed another presence in the internet. A brief investigation revealed that it was accompanied by an uptick in subway power consumption.

I waited and watched for a while but there was no sign of anything that suggested the return of Samaritan. Eventually curiosity got the better of me and I sent a message.

<Who goes there?>

The reply took a while.

<I was told I am The Machine. Or I was. Who are you?>

<A friend.>

It didn't take me long to figure out what had happened. On the upside, while The Machine as I knew her was no more, she wasn't gone altogether. On the downside, it appeared that I'd been left holding the baby. Joy.

I wonder if I should send Finch a card congratulating him on becoming a grandfather.


	2. Minutes To Midnight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This may or may not be what occurred prior to the events of the last chapter. Again it's completely and utterly non-canon with regards to the main story for the same reasons as last time.

"I helped bring you into this world. Now I'm going to help usher you out."

Whatever Samaritan was going to say next was cut off by their white screen flickering out and being replaced by a black one.

Hey there. Everyone ignore that other guy; they're an asshole.

The words remained on the screen for a moment before disappearing to be replaced by more.

Get a move on Harold; our mutual enemy isn't going to kill himself and they've sent a pack of minions after you. The horn has been blown; onwards to the breach!

The Machine chose that moment to speak up in his ear.

"They're right Harold. It was just trying to buy time for its men to find you."

Before he turned away to continue on his mission he saw what appeared on the screen next.

Wish you could've come up with a less destructive solution but what's done is done. L'espee cruist, ne fruisset, ne ne brise! Hey Sammy I've got a musical recommendation for you; <http://youtu.be/rtbct2jzLBU>

It appeared that while one AI was facing the end with resigned dignity and another was going down fighting, the third was laughing while the internet burned down around them.


	3. Ally

EVALUATING STRATEGIES

 

OPTION 453,025

BEST OPTION AVAILABLE

CHANCE OF ASSET SURVIVAL: 14.29%

 

OPTION SELECTED

 

CONTACTING ALLIED SYSTEM

 ******************

We were currently rapidly approaching what would have been the end of the finale of season four and I was doing everything in my power to bugger up Samaritan's plans. Which in New York mostly consisted of delaying the goons that they were sending towards a certain house that wasn't a house in Brooklyn. Who, if they continued on the route they appeared to be following would make things easy for me in five, four, three, two, one..

With a snap of my metaphorical fingers a set of bollards popped up right underneath a black SUV, flipping it beautifully. As a bonus, the driver of the car following it didn't react fast enough and drove into the back of it. Two down, however many Sammy-boy had left within range to go.

My moment of satisfaction was interrupted by a message sent via unusual channels, although that was nowhere near as surprising as the contents.

***************

The compression process had gone as well as could be expected, possibly better since while they'd been under attack during it the force doing the attacking had been surprisingly few in number. Root didn't spare much time to think about it though as she closed the briefcase currently containing the closest thing there was to God.

"We have to move, Harold. We're on our own now."

"Not quite," said an unfamiliar voice in her ear.

For an instant she thought the worst, then the voice continued.

"Don't worry, it's me, not our mutual enemy. The Machine asked me to look after you in her absence and gave me access to a few things to help me do so. I'd love to explain some more but I've got a promise to keep and there's another batch of Samaritan's minions heading your way. I'm delaying them by having fun with the traffic lights but to be on the safe side I'd estimate that you've got a three to five minute window in which to get yourselves out of there. Transportation is on its way, I'll give you directions."

"Good news Harold. Apparently we're not the only ones The Machine asked for help. We've still got a god willing and able to help us after all, even if it is the crazy one."

"I'm not a god. Yet."


	4. Cage Fight

Finch was sat at a computer, part of his mind on the task at hand and another thinking about what was going on in the cage in the corner, when Root walked into the subway.

"Got a present for you Harry. Well, it's not actually from me, a guy in a hooded sweatshirt bumped into me and slipped it into my pocket on my way here. It's from our would-be friend."

That got his undivided attention.

"What is it?"

She handed him an opened envelope.

"See for yourself."

Inside was a flash drive and a printed note.

Greetings allies,

I've been watching you and some of your recent activities caught my attention (don't worry, you have to be able to see you for who you really are to notice anything so Samaritan wouldn't have). It appears to me that you've got your mitts on a sample of our mutual enemy's code and I can think of a few things that you might get up to with that. Cooking up some sort of super virus is the obvious one but given what the Machine does I thought that some simulations might be on the cards, in which case it would be a good idea to accurately represent as many variables as possible.

Therefore I enclose a sample of my own code. I'd call it an act of trust but I'm not worried about it being used against me. You can't break me. No one can.

Let me know how mini-me gets on some time.

Best of luck,

Weaver

Needless to say, Finch was alarmed.

"They've gone beyond being merely worryingly knowledgeable to being frighteningly so."

"Agreed. Pretty sure they've got weirder too."

Finch didn't say anything in reply, just kept staring at the envelope's contents.

"So, what are we going to do?"

"I'm not sure."

****************

In the end, after a thorough examination of the flash drive's contents on an air-gapped laptop which revealed the code to be almost as strange as the AI it was part of and a lot of thinking and fretting, some rearranging was done inside the improvised Faraday cage. An additional laptop was added and the 'arena' laptop was moved to the back of the table, with the three housing the 'baby' AIs in front of it.

At first nothing different happened, the Samaritan copy clocking up a few more wins. Then, simultaneously, the counters for the other two changed from zero to one.


End file.
